Confusion in the Japanese Economy: Four Problem Areas I sense a major paradox surrounding Japan lately. If you look at GDP, or the per capita national income, Japan is one of the richest countries in the world. Trade surpluses are at record levels, foreign exchange reserves are the highest in the world, and Japan is the biggest creditor nation in the world. However, apart from 1995-96, business conditions have been continuously bad since 1991. In 1997, real growth was 0.9%. In the OECD forecast, which came out in March of this year, real growth for 1998 is projected to be -0.3%